High Court Sends Signals on Church, State Issue

High Court Sends Signals on Church, State Issue

Article excerpt

THE United States Supreme Court continues to weave a zigzag
course through the minefield of church-state relations.

In a unanimous decision, the high court on June 7 overturned a
lower-court ruling that a New York school district was within its
rights to bar religious groups - but not secular ones - from using
its property after-hours. At the same time, the justices refused to
hear an appeal of a case in which a federal court allowed
student-led graduation prayers in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Both decisions were hailed by Christian Right groups as a major
victory. "The Supreme Court has clearly stated that religious
speech must not be censored from the marketplace of ideas," said
Jay Sekulow, counsel for The American Center for Law and Justice, a
group founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson that argued for the
plaintiff in the New York case, Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches
School District.

Michael McConnell, an expert on church-state relations at the
University of Chicago, said although the court's ruling in Lamb's
Chapel does not tread new legal ground, it has tremendous practical
repercussions. "I don't think people realize how common it is for
religious speakers to be suppressed in public schools," Dr.
McConnell says. "This decision says public spaces will not be
treated as religion-free zones."

But liberal groups took heart from the narrow wording of Justice
Byron White's majority opinion in Lamb's Chapel. The court ruling
does not open the way for religious displays during school hours,
they note. "The court is reaffirming its long-standing rules on
separation of church and state," says Steve Green, a lawyer for
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which
filed a brief supporting the court's decision in Lamb's Chapel.

Mr. Green also cautioned against reading too much into the
court's refusal to hear a challenge to a Texas ruling that schools
could allow prayers at graduation if the students voted for it. …